Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It's Winter

[PineRidge]

Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

My DirectWay dish is located on the roof of my home above my office. I guess they can't be installed close to the ground because of the energy that they transmit when sending data, I really don't understand it all. Microwave energy maybe? Anyway I have this nagging problem with snow and ice building up and knocking me off-line when I least expect it. I have tried wax, WD-40, and Pam but nothing seems to keep snow or ice from sticking to the surface of the dish itself. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif The first of the week we got hit with several ice storms and it was impossible for me to get on the roof so I was forced to stand on the ground and de-iced using a garden hose and water.

Does anyone have any experience with the various heat tapes that can be cut to length? I am wondering if I can apply something along those lines directly to the dish to keep the dang-blasted thing clear in the winter time without hosing the roof down in the middle of the winter.

 

[tc35dforme]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

They make a custom fit heater wrap that goes on the dish...don't they?? I know they did for the round ones.

 

[PineRidge]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

<font color="blue"> They make a custom fit heater wrap that goes on the dish...don't they?? I know they did for the round ones.
</font>

I have never seen one and I have searched the Earthlink site to no avail. This is an elliptical dish as shown.

 

[JJT]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

I've never had an ice build up problem on the sat dish, just on the LNB head. I did the hair dryer thing a few times and then hit on the idea to simply rotate the entire thing ~30 degrees to keep any drips off the the receiver. 2 years later and the thing hasn't given me any grief.

 

[Mrwurm]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Mike,
My DirectWay dish never gets affected by snow or ice but you may find some help for yours at Sky Vision .

Sky Vision used to send me a catalog, though they don't anymore. Their catalog used to offer several different types of dish heaters and LNB heaters. You could add one to your existing dish or replace your entire dish with an integrated heated unit. Check out their web site and see if they still offer this kind of stuff.

 

[Mrwurm]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Here's one specifically for DirecWay and StarBand.

Heater

 

[PineRidge]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Jerry thanks for the heads up on the dish heater. Maybe I can put the hose away now. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[moeh1]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Mike,
you helped me out on some canopy measurments the other day, maybe I can return the favor. There are a bunch of dish covers on the market, turned up one quick look for your system
dish cover

Maybe you'll like that better than running electric up there and leaving it on/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif I know I would. My nephew put something like this on his 18" DSS years ago and is very happy.

 

[sassafraspete]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

We had an ice storm a few weeks back, and I ended up taping my wife's old hair dryer on a fiberglass painter's pole . Looked kinda silly outside my house blow drying my directway. The few time I need to do it... I suppose it would still beat spending $100 for a cover....though your pictures made me think about it. Let me see now....if I had that new boom pole that hooks to the FEL.......

sassafras

 

[PineRidge]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Marty now there is an interesting way to overcome a nuisance problem. I hadn't even thought that a signal would penetrate a cover before reading the info that you provided me. It makes better sense to me than the heater option anyway. Thanks for the heads up! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rockinmywaypa]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

My parents dish was installed in a flower bed about fifty feet from their house. Partly because there is a lot of trees blocking the signal close to the house and partly because they are old and the installer wanted to make it easy for them to clean it off. It is about waist high. High enough to be out of the snow, easy to reach.

 

[PineRidge]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

rockinmywaypa I think we are talking about two different dishes here. My DirecTV dish that serves for TV reception is also on the ground. It is easy to keep clean and only receives satellite signals. I installed my own, not bad with a compass.

My DirectWay dish is on the roof is serves as high speed 2-way communication for our computers only. Most of them are either mounted off the ground on posts or roof mounts such as mine because they transmit as well as receive. You would not want to stand in front of one of these dishes while they are transmitting. Probably like putting ones own head in a microwave oven I would imagine. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif For safety sake they must be professionally installed by a technician.

 

[kensfarm]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

To keep the "old farm" look.. I had them mount mine on the back of the old smoke house.. it is high enough to clear the tractor when I mow.. but low enough I can still reach it w/ a broom.

 

[rockinmywaypa]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

My mistake. Actually I was just talking to a salesman about one of those today. I am getting awfully tired of being booted off my extremely slow dialup.I thought directway was just tv.

 

[PineRidge]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

<font color="blue">My mistake. Actually I was just talking to a salesman about one of those today. I am getting awfully tired of being booted off my extremely slow dialup.I thought directway was just tv.
</font>

rockinmywaypa if you do decide to get DirectWay you are going to love it compared to dial up. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[PineRidge]

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Marty I originally got my DirecTV dish to serve my TV and for downloads only (one-way) to my computer. Then I found out about the DirectWay 2-way system and added it to serve the computers only. The DirecWay4000 system was the 1st system that they made and is also the one I use. The next generation is DiredWay6000 and I understand that that system is an improved version that also makes the task of networking the high speed connection even easier between multiple computers.

Since my place sits some 750 feet off the road my only other option for a good Internet connection was cable. Those boys wanted $1200.00 bucks to get the cable to my home even though I had an open trench for the utilities. So I had satellite installed instead and we love it. Since our business is Internet & mail order sales we rely very heavily on the system to perform. And that it does very well. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif